INTERNATIONAL REVIEW: Big four could soon be reduced to three

Someone should be launching an investigation into whether the Home Union teams are helping out the organisers of next year’s British and Irish Lions series by helping build up the reputation and formidability of the hosts, Australia.

That is said tongue in cheek of course, but the transformation of the Wallabies from the team that we saw bumble through the Castle Lager Rugby Championship with two comprehensive home losses to what were effectively Springbok second string teams and then shipped 60 points to Argentina has been nothing less than remarkable.

Yes, it was only Wales that Australia outplayed at the Principality Stadium on Sunday. And it has to be said that the source of Warren Gatland’s problems is surely in the cattle, as his native New Zealand countrymen would put it, that he has available. The players making up the Wales team in this time of transition do look remarkably callow.

Yet it was an away game for the Aussies, against a team that thumped them in the World Cup Pool game that effectively confirmed their early exit from the global competition in France last October. And they looked so composed and so much in control in producing a performance that was light years away from what they were producing before they started a turnaround of sorts from halftime in their first of two Bledisloe Cup games against the All Blacks.

JURY IS BECOMING MORE CONVINCED BY AUSSIES

After the win over England the jury was still out. It was after all just one win, and one swallow can never make a summer. Yet that jury might be starting to feel a bit more convinced after that humiliation of Wales. Quick turnarounds can happen, as you can ask the players who played for the Boks in 1997.

This Aussie turnaround does feel a bit reminiscent of what the Boks did under Nick Mallett on their end of year tour in a 1997 season which had started under a different coach and had seen a humbling series loss to the British and Irish Lions as well as a poor performance in the Tri-Nations. The Boks were low on the rankings when Mallett took over but by the end of a triumphant tour of Europe the whole landscape had been transformed. The following year the Boks, who won the Tri-Nations for the first time, were the world’s best team.

The second game of that tour saw the Boks win 52-10 against France in Paris. Let’s not compare that French team to Wales, but with that memory in the bank it was interesting to note Sunday’s result - 52-20 to Australia.

IRELAND WILL PROVIDE A PROPER TEST

Let’s wait until they’ve played Scotland and then Wales before suggesting the excitement that is building not just among Australians but also the UK supporters, who are in the weird position of wanting the opposition to be strong in next year’s series, is justified. But it is undeniable that the Wallabies are tracking a lot better than they were a few months ago.

Whether that puts them anywhere near the top bracket is debatable, and maybe their final tour game, which takes place outside of the international window, against Ireland will tell us more. Not that we can be too sure that Ireland are going to be members of the top bracket for too much longer after their rather lucky escape against Argentina just a week after a home loss to New Zealand.

The Irish did beat the Boks in Durban in July through a last gasp drop-goal in one of those rare games where the Bok game management was poor when it mattered, and they thumped France at the beginning of the last Six Nations before going on to win it, but it is hard to escape the feeling that their current era of players peaked at the World Cup.

Andy Farrell has an ageing team playing for him and he’s not doing the rotation, nor are there the clearly identifiable replacements for his star players, that Rassie Erasmus is managing to do with the Boks.

One thing in Ireland’s favour is that their provinces play in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship, which with the regular competition against South African teams should mean a sharp learning curve for players coming through. But right now, pending the next Six Nations at the start of next year, the jury is out when it comes to the easily identifiable top four that most would have agreed on after the last RWC - South Africa, New Zealand, Ireland and France.

France belong there after their win over the All Blacks and the Kiwis certainly belong there as they are making good progress, with the quality of their scrum work and other aspects of forward play surely being a warning to other nations - including the Boks.

REST ARE STARTING TO LOOK LIKE SECOND DIVISION

Ireland can make a point in their last game of the year against the Aussies, but the next week, with the Wallabies playing Scotland, will tell us more about the impression that there is a top three emerging as the first division of top tier rugby with the rest looking like second division.

Some make it a top five, with Ireland and Argentina lumped in, and it is true that Argentina have beaten all the top teams with the exception of Ireland this year. But they need to front more consistently against the top sides, and not follow up a memorable triumph with a massive defeat the following week, like they did against the Boks and All Blacks in the Championship, for them to really belong in the top bracket.

England? They aren’t far away but they are also far enough, perhaps exemplified by the yards that their fullback Freddie Steward was short of on defence in several of the Bok tries at the weekend. Watch the video replays - Steward is there or thereabouts as a defender in three of the four Bok tries, but every time he is made to look like a lumbering cart-horse in comparison with the zip of the Bok back three.

Steward was brilliant in blunting the Bok aerial threat at Twickenham but England coach Steve Borthwick can’t keep on with his progress towards a more inclusive attacking game with a donkey at fullback. George Furbank, or what about Tyrone Green, the former Emirates Lions player, is a better bet if you want to play attacking rugby.

WEEKEND INTERNATIONAL RESULTS

England 20 South Africa 29

France 30 New Zealand 29

Scotland 59 Portugal 21

Italy 20 Georgia 17

Wales 20 Australia 52

Ireland 22 Argentina 19